capsized
by former-burning-example
Summary: Rosalie goes off to college in Alaska. Alice misses her. Rosalie/Alice. Complete.


A/N: the whole "talking like they're from a different time" thing is never really expressed very well, so i tried to do some of that here. anyway rose and alice are soft gfs who miss each other.

...

.

The breeze in the meadow moves Rose's hair around her shoulders, and she shines in the light. The sun is high an full in such a way that Alice knows it won't last. Their time together has grown so fleeting and ephemeral lately, Alice feels desperate to anchor Rose for just a moment before she flies off again to destroy the world in the way only Rosalie Hale can.

Rose smiles down at Alice's head in her lap, slides her fingers into her dark hair. Alice closes her eyes at the feeling. It's been too long. Three months of wasting time at Forks High while Rose is up in Alaska with the Denalis, pretending to experience college for the first time.

There must have been a reason they thought spending some time apart would be manageable. It really isn't.

Alice takes one of Rose's hands in both her own and squeezes gently, smiling at the slight quirk at the corner of her mouth. "How _is_ college anyway? Esme mentioned this time around you decided on English? How unlike you."

Rose lets out a breath and shakes her head. "Yes, and what a mistake it's proven."

"A mistake?"

"You would think that with a turn of a century- plus some years past- the humans would have moved on." Rose's eyes flash, and Alice feels that familiar flare of affection for her. "The male voice is _tired_. I am so sick of heroism and honor and perhaps even the opposites of those things as well- as if they're any different. The world applauds men for such mundane feats. If you ask me, the most meaningful and breathtaking thing a man can do is stop talking about himself."

Alice can't help the laugh that escapes her. Rose shoots her a hard look but can't maintain it. Her face softens slightly. "Spoken like Miss Woolf herself. You really are an English major. I never thought you would let a human get to you like this. Bella will be thrilled at the depth of her influence!"

Rose rolls her eyes. "I'd almost forgotten, how is she? How is Edward?"

"Oh please Rose, don't pretend to care for my sake. It doesn't suit you. We don't have the time, and I won't waste it on what you already know." The hard look returns and Alice surrenders. "Oh they're fine, they're happy! They plan to get married. I should say that _I_ am the one who's planning. They're mostly… unhelpful."

Rose smiles, glittering against the blue sky and tall, pale grass. Alice wishes she could keep this moment, frame it at the very least. They will outlive the world around them, but there's never enough time to see Rose smile or hear her laugh. It always ends too quickly, then who's to say it ever happened at all?

"And you?" Rose says quietly. "I trust my absence has left you capsized."

"Naturally. Though the visions help. I should thank you for being so explicit in your decision making. Sometimes I feel like I'm there with you, you're glorious there, you know? Feared, even. I can almost relish in the feeling with you, but then I come out of it and you're gone."

"I'm here now."

"Not for as long as I would like, though I'm still grateful. I miss you," Alice says, turning her face into the fabric or Rosalie's skirt. There's a glow around Rose that becomes her. Maybe it's always been there and all this pining has only heightened it- Alice can't be quite sure.

"You can see me whenever you like."

"It isn't the same. I like when you're here. Completely here, and I don't have to count the seconds until you go back or until I have to leave."

Rose presses her lips together and nods once before looking off somewhere. She twists her fingers in Alice's hair and smooths it back again. She looks down, eyes hard and without the lightness of humor or jest. "If that's how you truly feel, higher education be damned. I'll return to you in an instant if you will it."

"I wouldn't do that to you."

Rose hesitates, always uncomfortable with the intrusion of her own emotions. "It's difficult for me too, you know. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder- but whoever said that was undoubtedly a man, and I've taken to finding my own turn of phrase lately. You have to know that I miss you too. Acutely so, and every day I restrain myself from tearing through the mountains to get back to you."

Alice is hit with a torrent of love for the girl. Capsized without her, indeed. "I know you don't think you are, but you can be quite romantic. But enough of this! You really must be getting into some depression era literature. There's a light at the end of this tunnel, Rose! I promise you."

"Oh, you mean when we move again and reset, stuck in this cycle of overrated youth?"

"You are so pessimistic, Rosalie." Alice sits up, puts her hands on Rose's thighs, and leans forward. "We're together now. We have… the whole afternoon. We can do whatever you want."

"You already know how this day ends."

"True, but I enjoy giving you the illusion of control. You seem to need it."

"Is that so?" Rose says, pulling Alice in by the collar of her jacket.

"Yes, but I love you in spite of it."

"And I love you in spite of you."

"I can live with that," Alice says before kissing her softly in the fading afternoon light without pause or fear of time lost and the temporary. They have forever, at the very least.


End file.
